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Late night broadhead talk

Hunter260

Hunter260

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2019
Messages
1,585
Location
Ash Flat, AR
I've changed broadheads every season i've bowhunted this far. Mostly because I'm gullible and think that spending another $40 can make be a better hunter, partly because I really like broadheads. The first deer I shot with a bow was a fork horn and I put a 2" swhacker right in his gizzard. Now I was green at this point and I mean real green. I had been a bow owner for about 2 months and after leaving the pro shop with a diamond bow flingin at 295 fps I was more than confident. Even the bow tech told me "Man an arrow goin that fast will pass through a bull elephant". So when this yearlin stepped out at 40 yards I had no fear. I let one loose and WHAM, 10 ringed that deer and watched him run off with about 25 inches of a 30 inch gold tip hangin out of him. He went probably 60 yards and I watched him fall over. Good thing too because there wasn't a drop of blood to be found. I had lucked out and cut off the bottom of his heart. Right after that I switched to a real simple inch and a half fixed 4 blade and had great results. Mostly pass throughs and just enough blood to find the deer. Shot 5 or 6 with this setup, but as soon as I found a buck I just had to go grab a hybrid fixed and mechanical thinking that would assure a taxidermy bill. Finally get the shot and boom, bad penetration again.

SO, after dozens of deer i've decided to finally swear off mechanicals forever. I'm always going to sharpen my heads right out of the package until they're razors. (something i just learned how to do). Now i'm in the conundrum of choosing between 2,3 or 4 blade heads. I plan on shooting deer with all 3 this year, but what are all of your thoughts? I understand they will all get the job done if I do my part, but if anyone on here understands the physics of broadheads tell me why one is better than the other.
 
Hunter260 said:
I've switched arrows every season too, mainly because i like tuning my bow. This year I got some easton axis at ~630 grains and close to 20% FOC
Click to expand...

I’m no expert, and I’ve change a lot as well. Last year I found the combo that I like. 18-20 FOC and a magnus hornet 2 blade with the 2 bleeders. I could never get the solid 2 blades to fly quite right. In this off season I bought some 3 blades to try. I bought a bulk stash in the classifieds. They fly great and I can resharpen them.


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The key to good broadhead flight imho, is a good FOC (I like 19%+, but over 15% is headed in the right direction) the “correct spine arrow”(stiffer is typically better than weak), and getting the arrow to come off the bow with minimal porpoising! If you can do this, any modern “straight” broadhead will fly well!
 
If you REALLY want to learn about how to maximize penetration then you should research Dr. Ashby and his work. Multiple threads on here about it and across the internet and YouTube.

You are headed in the Ashby direction already with a 600+ grain arrow, high FOC and razor sharp COC fixed blade broadheads. Arrow flight and structural integrity are even more important according to Ashby. There’s too much info to list here and plenty of it has already been discussed so I suggest using the search for Ashby, heavy arrow, etc. Good luck and have fun!
 
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I'm sort of the opposite, I've only used about three different heads the past eight years, only one being a mechanical, but my arrow selection has changed. I've been blessed to take a fair number of deer with various arrow set ups, everything from a 398 grain arrow to a 510 grain arrow. I will caveat that 99% of my shots are 20 yards or under, so that's one variable that seldom changes. I've had pass throughs on everything that did not hit spine or both shoulders. My shoulder shot, which exited at the joint only had about 6 inches of the arrow sticking out, was at 28 yards, was tipped with a fixed 3-blade, sharpened by me, out of a 70 lb BowTech Experience and at that time I was using the 398 grain arrow........ I often wonder just how much more arrow weight would I need to get all the way through that shot placement? I also feel a mechanical would not of had that much penetration, it was a heart shot that broke the opposite joint and while he broke the arrow, I recovered the broadhead, re-sharpened, spin + flight test and back in the quiver! Since then I have not used anything under 435 grains, currently at 477 grains and sort of liking the balanced flight and results of this set up, however, I have yet to have a shot go through any hard bone. This year, I may dabble with a mechanical or two in our early antler-less season, just to have a change and note the results, but when things start to heat up, my quiver will only be holding the 3-blade fixed heads.
 
kuzinva said:
I'm sort of the opposite, I've only used about three different heads the past eight years, only one being a mechanical, but my arrow selection has changed. I've been blessed to take a fair number of deer with various arrow set ups, everything from a 398 grain arrow to a 510 grain arrow. I will caveat that 99% of my shots are 20 yards or under, so that's one variable that seldom changes. I've had pass throughs on everything that did not hit spine or both shoulders. My shoulder shot, which exited at the joint only had about 6 inches of the arrow sticking out, was at 28 yards, was tipped with a fixed 3-blade, sharpened by me, out of a 70 lb BowTech Experience and at that time I was using the 398 grain arrow........ I often wonder just how much more arrow weight would I need to get all the way through that shot placement? I also feel a mechanical would not of had that much penetration, it was a heart shot that broke the opposite joint and while he broke the arrow, I recovered the broadhead, re-sharpened, spin + flight test and back in the quiver! Since then I have not used anything under 435 grains, currently at 477 grains and sort of liking the balanced flight and results of this set up, however, I have yet to have a shot go through any hard bone. This year, I may dabble with a mechanical or two in our early antler-less season, just to have a change and note the results, but when things start to heat up, my quiver will only be holding the 3-blade fixed heads.
Click to expand...
I shot the Experience back when I was lookin and had tunnel vision for the Elite Answer. It was a fine shooter and almost made me stray. I did end up with the EN 32 for a handful of years. Should have gotten the Experience, not that the Elite was a bad choice but in hind sight..... well you know. I'm shooting a Bow Tech Reign 6 now, and have to say I LOVE this bow. In my experience a trip to mechanical land is a step in the wrong direction, I'll tell you right now, they work when they do, but will leave you cussing and brokenhearted at some point. I know there are no guarantees in bow hunting I've been doing it long enough. I just recently took the same journey your talking about. It was a two year experiment where I went to mechanicals to get better blood trails for my old failing eyesight. I thought I'd get massive blood trails, and I did on some of the deer I killed, but the overall performance of mechanicals was lacking. Granted I had arrow integrity issues as well due to my own ignorance, but it showed me just how much force those things require to deploy. In two cases on nice bucks I had less than acceptable penetration on hits that were at close range(12-15 yds) that left me wishing I had an exit wound. If I could save you from repeating the same mistakes as me that would be great. I know as adult men and women we learn better from our OWN experiences, but your experiment with expandables has been done over and over with the same result, They work on optimal hits and will leave you wishing for something different on less than optimum ones. Last year my 8pt was half eaten by coyotes because I didn't get an exit wound. I was 20 feet up and he was 15yds. no reason to not get a pass through. My advise to you would be to skip the expandable experiment and shoot a heavier arrow tipped with some razor sharp fixed position head. Read Ashby. Push your shots forward and shoot the heart out. Don't be left wishing for better penetration, make it happen. IMHO.
 
Shot 3 blade 100 grain fixed broadheads last year with good results, 2 pass through a 2 dead deer.

This year I'm shooting a 4 blade 175 grain fixed broadheads with 75 grain inserts as well.
 
I was hunting on a semi guided Midwest hunt a few years back. I remember the “guide” talking to the hunters and saying “shot the deer in the lungs, we have big deer and you want to avoid the shoulder!” I thought to my self, I have heart shot 2 deer in Ohio that were over 300#...they deer can’t be any bigger than that! Fast forward a few days, I had a nice shooter buck came into 22 yards, probably 250#. I treated him like every deer I have shot in the last 10-15 years...hugged the shoulder (crease), lower 1/3, and let him have it! Got a complete pass through broke offside leg, buck ran 35 yards and fell over. My arrow was 445 grains and tipped with 4 blade fixed broadhead (1” cut). I had good blood, but no tracking was needed. Called the guide, and he comes. He looks at the deer and says, you got lucky not to hit the shoulder. I said no, I hit him exactly where I was aiming.” He was convinced that you should only double lung a deer. I works most of the time...but sometimes if the deer drops you might hit no mans land, or miss (best case).
With fixed heads you might not always have an insane blood trail, but if you make sure they are sharp, it will be sufficient! Just my opinion.
 
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